The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 8

A8 F33 11 11 I rit TUESDAY OCTOBER 30, 2007 All O'ahu can be part of recycling campaign Join the STOBYggj conversation. titSi Post your comments about our editorials at HONOlULUADVtRTlSEIlCOOPIWOH Reach Dick Adair at dadairhonoluluadvertisei.com Foreign policy sets Clinton apart from Denis Common wisdom has it that any new habit requires about 21 days to set. If that's true, at least two communities on O'ahu are about three weeks away from seeing their new recycling habit take hold. One suspects it's going to take a little longer than that, with all the adjustments to routine this involves. Residents are, for example, still finding a place to stow the new blue bins distributed to Mililani and Hawaii Kai for this week's long-awaited curb-side recycling pilot launch.

But despite the learning curve, the incentive for success is there. For starters, the enthusiasm of those who've lived in a recycling community before is catching. Veterans all testify that separating recy-clables is soon second nature, and that becoming part of the solution feels a lot nicer than being part of the problem. Residents of the pilot communities may feel that it's all up to them to kick-start the is-landwide commitment, but leaving it on their shoulders would be a critical error. City officials are putting the initial focus on working out the bugs in the curbside collections, as they should, but the pilot campaign can't end there.

The rest of O'ahu has a role to play, and the city needs to parlay the launch momentum COMMENTARY By Sebastian Mallaby into a drive to get all residents into the recycling mode. The push to enlist condominiums to begin recycling through their private trash haulers is a good step, but other neighborhoods need outreach, too. For example, public education efforts could help drive the point home that curbside collections are only part of the trash-reduction ethic. Shoppers also can develop the habit of selecting merchandise with less wasteful packaging, bring reusable shopping bags to the market and return the plastic ones at home to stores that recycle them. Other states with more recycling experience are learning this lesson late in the game.

In Vermont, for example, residents now recycle about a third of their solid waste, up from 19 percent in 1989. But the average resident also produces about six pounds of waste a day, up a half pound in less than a decade. Honolulu can start now to attack our solid waste problem from all angles. As island dwellers, we really have no other choice. Hussein by other means.

By 2002, the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's regime had been diluted, and there was pressure to weaken them further. Clinton alone has the honesty to insist that the case for war was reasonable at the time even if, with the benefit of hindsight, the invasion has proved disastrous. In sticking to that politically difficult position, Clinton is saying that, despite its awful risks, war can sometimes be the least bad choice. She is not running away from military power, even in a political climate that nounced a new package of Iran sanctions on Thursday, Edwards declared that the president and his team had once again "rattled their sabers in their march toward military action." Bush hatred has driven him to the point where he regards sanctions as a harbinger of war rather than an alternative. Clinton's rivals are contemplating history and deriving only I 1 i v.

ments from Bush or his vice president don't prove that war is the preordained strategy. The idea that the threat of war can prevent actual war is the most basic lesson of nuclear doctrine, but it appears to escape the Bush haters. In a recent interview with NPR, Obama argued that Iran understands America's power, so there is no need to advertise it further. If the Bush administration's central error has been to rely too much on military force, the Bush haters' mistake may be to shrink from all mention of it. Bush's record is disastrous, and on an emotional level, Bush hatred is understandable.

But what we need in the next president is a vision of the world that's not distorted by the bitterness of recent times: a vision that accepts the limits of military force but also acknowledges that Americans face real threats, that feckless foreign powers can sometimes make the ideal of multilateralism unattainable and that war can sometimes be the least bad option. Obama, who promised to rise above partisanship, seems too fearful of his party's Bush-hating base to offer that vision. It's impressive and surprising that Clinton, who railed against a vast right-wing conspiracy not so long ago, has risen above Bush hatred in forming her world-view. She has come a long way in just one decade. Mallaby is a fellow for International Economics with the Council on Foreign Relations.

He wrote this commentary for The Washington Post. Despite going on the attack, Obama still coming up short So now Barack Obama has come out swinging against Hillary Clinton. After months of gentlemanly restraint, he accuses her of poll-tested, triangulated dissembling. It's true that Clinton has ducked questions on Social Security reform and abandoned her husband's principled commitment to free trade. But the Obama attack deserves to fail.

On the big foreign policy questions of the day, it is Obama who looks craven and Clinton who looks honest. First the Iran debate. All the Democratic presidential hopefuls know that a nuclear Iran is scary. They know that the Europeans have been patiently negotiating with Iran to secure a freeze of its program and that the Iranians have been stalling. But Clinton is the only Democratic candidate who unequivocally embraces the obvious next step: Push hard for the sanctions that might change Iran's calculations.

Unlike her opponents, Clinton supported a pro-sanctions resolution in the Senate. It's not that Clinton's rivals believe sanctions are mistaken. It's that they lack the courage to defy Bush-hating primary voters, who think that lining up with the president on any issue is like becoming a Death Eater. The truth is that Clinton did not give Bush any sort of "blank check" if Bush wants to bomb Iran or hit Iranian units inside Iraq, he can do so without a Senate resolution. After the administration an- Longtime Red Cross volunteer a role model WOT' GET INVOLVED To volunteer for the American Red Cross, Hawai'i State Chapter, go to www.hawaiiredcross.org Or call 739-81 17.

Associated Press library photo Sept. 2007 Sen, Hillary Clinton has avoided her rivals' Bush-hating rhetoric. a narrow lesson about Bush: Don't trust him when he confronts a Muslim country. But the larger, more durable lesson from Iraq is that wars can be caused by a lack of confrontation. The Iraq invasion happened partly because the world had lost the stomach to confront Saddam makes running attractive.

Likewise on sanctions, Clinton is the only one to insist that sanctions are less a prelude to war than a means of forestalling it. They are more likely to work, moreover, if the military option is looming in the background, which is why bellicose com For decades, the American Red Cross, has been a backbone for victims in the wake of disasters from wars to hurricanes. For 67 years, Goldie Brang-man Dumpson has volunteered her services, staying true to the organization's mandate and urging others to join the cause. As today's commentary by Coralie Chun Matayoshi, CEO of the American Red Cross, Hawai'i State Chapter, mentions, this year marks both the 90-year anniversary of the chapter, as well as Dumpson's 90th birthday. i And there are no signs of either slowing down.

Dumpson had already served as a volunteer for the New York chapter for 47 years. Admittedly, joining the local Red Cross chapter wasn't hjer intention in 1987 when she Cjame to Hawai'i after retiring. the chapter's strong community ties lured her back. These days, Dumpson leaves the disaster relief "for Hawaii's Red Cross marks a milestone the young folks." But clearly, she has put in her time, and continues to. "Two incidents stand out in my mind.

I was sent to Guam to teach courses when Hurricane Omar hit in 1992. When I came back, Iniki hit. I was there for a week running the shelter for victims," she said. "You just feel like you're giving something back." Dumpson is just one of thousands of volunteers who enable Red Cross to help disaster-struck communities when they need it the most. And after more than six decades, she remains loyal to the organization's mission: To protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being.

A Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, whose Editorial Board consists of: Dick Adair, Anne Harpham, Jeanne Mariani-Belding, Mark Platte, Pati Poblete, Vicfci Viotti and Lee Webber. The Honolulu Advertiser Established uly 2, 1H56 Dam burst, volcanic eruptions, air crashes, mercury contamination, hostage situations, and last October's earthquake. But it's not only the big disasters that count. Red Cross volunteers are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, responding to everyday fires and other disasters that occur at least twice a week statewide. We provide not only food, clothing and shelter, but mental health counseling to help people get back on their feet after a tragedy.

Beyond responding to disaster victims with caring and compassion, our mission is to save lives by training 36,000 people per year in CPR, first aid, life-guarding, swimming, nurse aide, family caregiving, babysitting, and pet first aid. And even though we are mandated by Congress to respond to disasters and provide emergency communication between deployed military service members and their loved ones, we are not a government agency and must rely on the generosity of Hawai'i's people to provide these free services to our community. Mahalo to all of our Red Cross donors and volunteers for all you have done for the past 90 years. This is indeed a significant milestone for us as well as a very special volunteer, Goldie Brangman Dumpson, a Red Cross volunteer for 67 years, who is 90 years young this year! children of Hawai'i to be sent to the war front. After World War the Hawai'i Red Cross focused on first aid, water safety and nursing programs.

Throughout these years, the Red Cross assisted victims of floods, fires, and flu and measles epidemics. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, the Hawai'i Red Cross, the only American Red Cross chapter in a combat zone, sprung into action. Red Cross Motor Corps volunteers evacuated people from the danger zone, transported supplies to Tripler, and cared for the wounded. Canteen Corps fed 300 evacuees and volunteers at 'Iolani Palace that day, 1,000 the next day, and continued to feed until the emergency situation was over.

The Surgical Dressings, Knitting, and Sewing Corps produced phenomenal amounts of items, including children's gas masks with bunny ears, operating tents, and ditty bags for service men in hospitals during the holidays. On April 1946, a 55-foot tsunami traveling 500 miles per hour devastated Hilo, killing 159 people and leaving 5,000 homeless. The Red Cross immediately set up shelters, shipped 260 tons of food from Honolulu the very next day, and helped 565 families rebuild their homes and lives. For 90 years, the Red Cross has played a vital role in helping the people of Hawai'i recover from every major disaster, including Hurricanes Iniki and Iwa, Sacred Falls landslide, New Years and Manoa floods, Kaloko Looking back on the organization's rich history in its 90th year While most people know that the Red Cross exists worldwide, few realize what a rich history the Red Cross has in Hawai'i. Officially chartered as a chapter of the American Red Cross in 1917, the humanitarian work of the Red Cross began as early as 1898, when 300 women, including Princess Ka'iulani, cared for sick and wounded soldiers en route from the Philippines during the Spanish American War.

In 1917, Queen Lili'uokalani sewed a Red Cross flag that soared above 'Iolani Palace during World War while volunteers rolled bandages in the throne room. When the flag was presented to the territorial governor on Sept. 14, 1917, the queen said, "The flag is an expression of my warm and hearty sympathy for the cause of humanity." Soon after the Red Cross was founded, the Red Cross held its first membership drive. On Sept. 29, 1917, the Royal Hawaiian Band boarded a special street car that drove around Honolulu while the band played "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." Ambulances paraded through the streets, and the Hawaiian Electric Co.

sounded a big whistle several times each hour once for every 500 new members. More than 16,000 people joined the Red Cross that day, or one-sixth of the entire population of O'ahu. Among them was Queen Lili'uokalani, rru ISLAND VOICES By Coralie Chun Matayoshi seated in a wheelchair on the 15-nai of her Washington Place home, who presented a $100 check to become a patron member of the Red Cross. In the months that followed, daily newspaper reports of mounting casualties stirred more people into action to demonstrate their compassion and patriotism. As future territorial governor George Carter put it in an address to the Civic Convention in Honolulu: "The Red Cross is to humanity what our flag is to liberty.

They are symbols of our faith and liberty. The Red Cross organization is the channel along which the generosity of our hearts may be carried into action." Volunteers were desperately needed to prepare surgical dressings, sew hospital garments, and knit blankets, sweaters, socks, hats, and gloves. For the duration of the war, the 'Iolani Palace throne room became the production center, with long makeshift tables for folding gauze and rolling bandages. The firemen at the Makiki Station became well known for their knitting, and by 1918, over 280,000 items had been produced by the men, women and Ml) President and Publisher LEE I. WEBBER 525-7440 lwebberIhnoluluAdvertiser.com Senior Vice PresidentEditor MARK PLATTE 525-8080 Managing EditorContent MARSHA McFADDEN 535-2426 Managing EditorDigital and Multimedia SANDRA S.

OSHIRO 525-8063 sosWrohonolulu.sanneft.com Editorial and Opinion Editor JEANNE MARIANI-BELDING 1 535-2445 The Honolulu Advertiser's mission is to chronicle Hawai'i's story while being a vigilant partner in helping the Islands shape their future. To be diligent, truthful, accurate and fair. To provide a voice for all of the community. To reflect a love and understanding of this place and its people. To honor "Hawai'i's ethnic, cultural and social diversity.

To cherish the land and sea. To perpetuate the qualities of aloha tolerance, humility, sharing and respect. To inform, educate and entertain. To be Hawai'i's newspaper. Coralie Chun Matayoshi is chief executive officer for the American Red Cross, Hawai'i State Chapter.

She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser. J553 I.